Frustrations, Big Dunks, Blown Calls, B's Hot

What a Monday night! Are New Yorkers and Bostonians going to be okay? We’ve got the Knicks and Rangers every other night, and the same situation for the Bruins and Celtics. Everyone needs to have their emergency contacts set because these games are getting stressful!

Let’s look at all the scores from last night and check out some other news.

Madness Square Garden

The Knicks keep finding themselves on the winning side of some bad calls in the last minute of games, but they have also shown a new ability to close out games in the final four minutes. It’s something we didn’t really see during the regular season, but maybe the playoff Knicks are different?

Last night was an absolute battle in MSG. The game went back and forth; no team ever had more than a single-digit lead, and there were some electric plays. Isaiah Hartenstein hit a half-court buzzer beat to close out the first half, Obi Toppin, a former Knick, was having a mid-game dunk contest with himself, and Jalen Bruson was putting up another 40burger as he dropped 43 points.

It was exactly the type of game you wanted to watch, with the Knicks making a comeback with 4 minutes left to play. You had closing-minute threes from Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo. The DiVincenzo three came after the Knicks got the ball back from a wrongly whistled kickball call. Then, the Pacers had an opportunity to win the game but had a terrible illegal screen called in the final seconds.

The Wolves Are Hungry

Where do we start with this one?

The Minnesota Timberwolves suffocated the Denver Nuggets all night long and are now up 2-0 in the series, with both wins coming on the road in Denver. The T-Wolves won and bulldozed the Nuggets 106-80.

Minnesota got 27 from both Anthony Edwards and Karl Anthony Towns, and they dominated on defense even without Rudy Gobert, who was out for the birth of his first child.

The Nuggets were frustrated all night after being smothered by the Wolves defense. HC Michael Malone was close to getting a tech early in the game, and Jamal Murray was practically missing from the game after he only scored 8 points. HIs most notable thing he did was throwing something from the bench onto the court. Nikola Jokic coudln’t get the normal shots to fall and although he finished with 16 points, he was unable to impose himself on Minnesota physically.

The Nuggets are down 0-2 and on the road for game 3. Even worse, they’ll likely be without their second-best player. Check out what I meant when I said Murray threw things on the court. You can’t throw things on the court where players could potentially get hurt and expect not to get penalized for it.

Bruins Stay Hot

After just squeezing by the Toronto Maple Leafs in OT just two nights ago, the Boston Bruins had to head straight to the Sunshine State to face the Florida Panthers, who are one of the best teams in the NHL. Every seat on the plane must lie down because the Bs were well-rested and played hot in game 1. The Panthers scored the first goal of the game 12 minutes into the second period, and then the Bruins scored 5 unanswered goals over the next 28 minutes of play to win 5-1.

One of those goals came from Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo. Carlo missed the morning with the team as he stayed in Boston while his wife gave birth to their second child. He then flew on his own to Florida, joined the team, and scored a goal. THAT’S A HELLUVA DAY.

The way things are shaping up, we could have an Eastern Conference finals in both the NBA and NHL, with Boston facing New York.

This could be a weird game for their Panthers as they haven’t played a game in a week since they knocked off the Lightning. Too much rest can be a bad thing. We’ll see what happens in game 2.

Worth The Money

The LA Dodgers knew spending the big bucks on Shohei Ohtani in the offseason was more of an investment than a gamble (pun intended 😉). Call it whatever you want. The bet is paying off.

In Ohtani’s last 4 games, he had 15 at-bats. From those 15 at-bats, he has recorded 4 home runs, 8 RBIs, and 4 stolen bases.

The Dodgers are currently on a five-game win streak and have the second-best record in the National League.

Here is Othani’s latest home run that just absolutely gets pummeled by the bat.

More Playoffs Tonight

NBA

🏀 Cleveland @ Boston, 7 pm on TNT

Game 1 of East semifinals

🏀 Dallas @ Oklahoma City, 9:30 pm on TNT

Game 1 of West semifinals

NHL

🏒 Carolina @ New York Rangers, 7 pm on ESPN

Rangers lead series 1-0

🏒 Colorado @ Dallas, 9:30 pm on ESPN

Game 1 West 2nd round

That’s all for today. Enjoy the games tonight, and go Rangers!

-The DB